Too bad its only Chrom and Lucina (but at least I could see Chrom running around chopping monsters up then chilling by a campfire feasting on whatever; still needs more Frederick though). Either way, something artful should come out of this soon enough.

To be fair, I didn't specify that my request wasn't for a Frederick costume.

That said, Sully's B-Day today.

She's the first of the Christmas Knights and the Skill/Speed oriented one (inverting the role for the first time since FE8). Disregarding the oddity of Tellus' Knights, she's the first female Cavalier since Cecil from FE3 (although FE8's Amelia can promote into one, but why would you when she can get HUGE!!!; and if you decide to not disregard the Tellus games then FE10's Fiora comes the closest). Though if you include Paladins then you've also got Midia, Matilda, Midia again, Midia yet again, Amalda, Isadora, Titania, and finally Midia twice more. Anyways, Discipline is actually one of the better base skills early on since you can build weapon ranks twice as fast and get out of E rank that much sooner. Additionally since Sully starts as a Cavalier, she'll have two separate weapon ranks to raise at once, making her transition to either Paladin, Great Knight, or her Myrmidon classes all the easier (she does need to spend time as either a Great Knight or reclass from a promoted form to get to Wyvern Lord so that she isn't dependent on a Bronze Axe for offense in either Wyvern Rider or Griffin Rider). She also gets Luna, Astra, Leathality, and Swordfaire for offensive boosts (plus Strength+2 and technically Defender, both of which are kinda minor), Avoid+10, Outdoor Fighter, Quick Burn, and Sword and Lancebreakers for additional avoid (and Tantivy which is too situational and generally not the best use of a skill slot unless you have nothing better to add), Aegis, Dual Guard+, Vantage, and Defender for defense, and Deliverer and Pass for movement boosts.

As for her stat modifiers, her's are set to match her role as the speedy Christmas Knight with high Skill and Speed at the expense of Strength, Magic, and Defense, leaving her with a minor +1 to her overall stats. For the purposes of maximizing Morgan's stats given an appropriately stat distributed male Avatar, a Lon'qu sired Kjelle can birth a Morgan with the highest Skill modifier of +10 and either a Frederick or Vaike sired Kjelle can birth a Morgan with a -5 to Magic. As for potential mates, since Kjelle automatically gains the Knight class tree out of nowhere she'll always have more than the basic three class trees to choose from. Unfortunately, this also means that most potential fathers will overlap with one or more of her potential class sets, especially Lon'qu who's only contributions are Thief and Trickster and Frederick who passes nothing but a shitty Magic stat cap modifier and a free skill that all kids get from their fathers. Her best pairing option is Donnel, since despite both of their mediocre modifiers, he's her only pairing that offers the full three class trees to Kjelle, including the oft sought after Pegasus Knight class tree and the highly useful Mercenary class tree plus the Troubadour class tree offers Renewal and Dual Support+ for even greater defensive options and one of his Fighter/Warrior skills or Aptitude. Her next best are Henry for Dark Magic and having the second highest class contribution of eight classes, followed by Kellam for his high Defense modifier and five classes (plus a free donation of Pavise to save Kjelle from having to spend time as a General), and finally Gregor for his physical oriented modifiers and the Mercenary class tree. Incidentally, because Kjelle gets so many great physically oriented classes for free, Sully will probably gain the least mileage out of the Avatar outside of one of the non-parent characters (although the Avatar's modifiers will suck less than Donnel's does). Additionally, out of all of Chrom's potential brides, Sully is the worst outside of defaulting onto the Maiden since Kjelle will only inherit his lame Archer class tree and Aether while Lucina will miss out on getting onto the Galeforce which only happens with Sully or the Maiden as her mother (although she does get Astra as a consolation prize, but Olivia and the Avatar can get her that too).

Ultimately, despite her modifiers suggesting otherwise, Sully is probably the most physically oriented first gen female outside of the Avatar since unlike Cherche, she's not a staffbot sitting on top of a Wyvern, and unlike Panne and Nowi doesn't need stones to transform (in fact, Sully is the only first gen female without a natural magic or staff using class with Bride being her only staff option, and yes, this includes ladies like Flavia who like Panne has Trickster letting use Staffs). Plus her daughter is fairly unscrewable in terms of inheritance due to her automatic head start and even higher natural emphasis on physical classes.

Anyways, Virion shows up during chapter 1 which makes him the game's token early game Archer (and the only default one outside of Noire). Unfortunately, like many who share this trope, Virion's starting stats are balls, especially that 6 Strength and 5 Speed (for reference, the only people you get who have Speed as low as that are Kellam, Ricken, and Normal or Hard mode Nowi, and the only ones with less are Lissa and Donnel with 4 and 3 Speed respectfully. That said, he starts to become an asset by Chapter 5 barring Chrom soloing the chapter with his Falchion or Lon'qu breaking out some ill gotten Wyrmslayer (admittedly Ricken has it harder here than Virion does due to Wind magic being really low powered at lower levels and the lack of 3 and a half chapters to grow in). It doesn't help that Archers have pretty crappy skills that only aid in hitting things (there are instances where this is useful but Archers aren't the class that benefits from this given that bows range from highly accurate to stupidly accurate *cough*Innes Bow*cough*), Rally Skill (gimmicky at best and better on Rallybots), Bowbreaker (only good for fliers), and Bowfaire (given how many classes use Bows to begin with (i.e. the Archer class tree, Assassins, Warriors, and Brides), this is by far the worst Faire skill in the game for players). That said, Virion does have the option of riding a Wyvern which is a great class for him to put his +Hit/Skill skills to work with less than accurate axes (including both the Violent Axe, which is anti-flier, and the Imposing Axe, a D ranked axe with a Silver weapon's might and a nigh unto non-existent Hit rate). He also has access to the Mage class tree for some reason (I guess to give him access to Wind magic to maintain his anti-air unit status). All that said, he might just be the best person to just keep as a Sniper for Towering, Long, and Double Bow use.

As for eugenics, he's really only okay due to his odd class set and his stat cap modifier total being only +1. In fact, his stat modifiers make him more or less a Lon'qu lite with +2 Skill and Speed cap mods at the expense of Defense and a little Luck (Res is a pricier stat for Lon'qu to take a hit in than Luck, but his even higher Skill and Speed more than compensate). That said, if you want to engineer a Morgan with the lowest Defense possible, just have Maribelle sleep with either Lon'qu or Virion then have a female Avatar sleep with the resulting Brady for a Morgan with a -7 in Defense (then for extra hilarity, make him into a Mage or Thief and watch him crumple like paper). As for ideal mates, Lissa's probably his best bet since Owain would benefit from the Mage class tree to make use of his mother's modifiers as well as Virion's Skill and Speed for even better Myrmidon/Swordmasterness; additionally Wyvern Lord can also go a long way towards shoring up his physical stats. After that is Panne in case she doesn't get Lon'qu since unlike Lon'qu, Virion has no class that overlaps with Yarne's defaults, and more importantly, provides him with the Wyvern Rider class tree his mother shortchanges him on (albeit, the Mage tree will be very much useless to Yarne). And the last of his top 3 is Cordelia who again will produce a skillful and fast child with him, and Severa will definitely benefit from Virion's Archer and Mage class trees to maximize her proficiency as a Sorcerer with Tomefaire, Magic+2, Hit+20 or Prescience (if she's Mire sniping), and Skill+2 (for maximum Vengeance and Sol), plus Wyvern Rider is just a solid class that can make use of her Bow/Tomebreaker skill combo in addition to her default Pegasus Knight class tree, even if she isn't actually getting Bow Knight (or Dark Knight) from Virion. His worst option is to pair with Nowi since Nah will only walk away with his fairly useless Archer class tree.

Basically Virion is your AA guy for most of the game but suffers from the usual 'early game Archers have bad bases' problem that usually is the primary reason why the Archer class sucks in general for the FE series (not like this game's class skills for Archers are helping him either). His mating situation is odd given his unusual Mage class tree but it also means that he'll always have something to offer provided somebody doesn't offer something better than him.

her brains scrambled. At least she walked away from certain Disney Death (albeit not as well as other victims of Disney Death).

Also, if you haven't figured it out by now, M&M stands for Emmeryn, Chrom and Lissa's older sister and Ylisse's former ruler before her long walk down a short (but tall) rock spire in the middle of a barren and rocky wasteland back in chapter 9. She must have taken some Vaxasplat (a proud product of Prescott Pharmaceuticals) beforehand. :PAnyways, despite her handicap, M&M's still a great Staff Bot (losing out to a female Avatar as well as Lissa's and Maribelle's vastly superior availability). Her +4 Magic cap modifier can only be matched by a Magic focused Avatar taking only Strength, Skill, Speed, or Defense as a penalty, and her closest Gen 1 competitors are Miriel, Tharja, and the Shadowgift user. Unfortunately on top of that is not a hell of a lot else since almost all post game characters only have a +2 to their overall stat cap modifier so she's eating hefty -2 Strength and Defense penalties with only a paltry +1 in Speed and Resistance to offset those.

That said, her class spread is almost pure staffbot as she gets the Cleric, Troubadour, and Pegasus Knight class trees (and since she's female, she can also get the Bride class from DLC), missing out on only the Trickster class for staff access. And with that said, despite only having 8 classes to choose from, she has the skills of a full 9 classes thanks to coming built like a Sage raised from a Mage instead of a Cleric/Priest (i.e. she's sporting the Mage's Magic+2 and Focus skills by default despite not actually having access to the class in question). Of course she could also moonlight as a Rally Bot instead by taking Rally Love, Rally Movement, Rally Speed, Rally Magic, and either Rally Luck or Rally Resistance. Or she could go on the offensive as a Dark Flier or Valkyrie with Tomefaire, Magic+2, Support Boost+, Galeforce, and either Miracle or Renewal.

Either way though, she'll make for a great Rally and/or Staff Bot since she can't support with anybody beyond the Avatar and their possible child together like all post game characters are want to do, hence nobody wanting to pair up with her. Unfortunately, like most childless parents, she really doesn't offer Morgan anything beyond her +4 Magic cap modifier and there is a better way to get an even higher Magic cap on a male Morgan through Ricken!Laurent.

Basically, like most other post game character's, M&M doesn't have a job that can't be filled by other/better characters and her child bearing prospects are dismal at best, however, she's still useful as a pure support unit if nothing else which is more than most post game characters can offer. Actually, she's the closest this game gets to a pure Gotoh archetype (except for the whole post game thing; maybe she's more akin to Nomah in that she comes super late and isn't quite good enough to be a crutch character but can still be a decent Support Bot if you're really hurting).

You're gonna need to add Zelda to that pic in your sig ACC. Anyways, hope you brought an apple today for its Teach's birthday.

Anyways, The Vaike's biggest asset going for him is the fact that he's one of your first Axe users (outside of Frederick, and assuming no reclassing or promoting to an Axe using class, the next is Libra), and that he's got the highest Strength stat cap modifier of all potential fathers (outside The Avatar). In fact he has so little going for him, its easy to wind up benching him early on since Soldiers go out early and Axe, Sword, and Magic using classes like Barbarians, Wyvern Riders, Mercenaries, and Mages start becoming more prolific. His classes only serve to make him a specialist in brigandage (given that he can swipe treasure chests with Locktouch, gold with Despoil, HP with Sol, and Life with Lethality) as his Fighter class tree is highly complemented by his Barbarian class tree (although it does cannibalize his promoted class selection since they share the Warrior promotion), and, outside of Movement+1 and Lucky Seven, The Vaike has little use for his Thief class tree (especially Trickster which takes valuable Strength and Speed and dumps it into The Vaike's dump stats, Magic and Resistance).

On that note, he also gets an extra stat cap point towards Skill and Speed and a shit load of penalties in Magic (tying for worst with Frederick and a bunch of post game characters), Resistance (tying for worst with Gregor and a bunch of post game characters), and Luck for a +0 total stat cap modifier (a trait shared only by Gaius and Olivia). And while this doesn't bother him too much given his generally physical nature, it does mean that he's only really bringing Strength with him to the breeding table modifier-wise and unless you're gunning for a Morgan with the highest possible Strength cap of +11 and possibly the lowest Resistance cap of -6 (and a Char/Camus clone) or are trying to fix Owain or Brady's Strength issues. In fact only Cherche or Nowi have any real use for The Vaike given the aforementioned massive Strength stat cap modifier (Gerome benefits from the Barbarian class tree and Trickster's Lucky Seven is always useful, but really needs to stay in physically oriented classes), that Nah is the only child to inherit the full 9 classes from The Vaike (since The Vaike's Fighter and Barbarian class trees are exchanged for the Knight and Mercenary class trees for the daughters, most of whom already get one of those classes by default, but not Nah) plus an extra male exclusive skill, and that both acquire the Thief/Griffin Rider class combo for maximum mobility.

Additionally, special note should go towards either The Vaike or Gaius sired Inigo as they are statistically the single worst child in the game (unless they inherit Galeforce from their mother). Either way The Vaike!Inigo is actually slightly better between the two (skills and class access are identical) due to gaining 2 Strength and 1 Defense and Luck in exchange for 1 Magic and Speed and 2 Resistance (and the fact that Gaius passes the Pegasus Knight class tree on down to his kids which is wasted on Inigo).

The tl;dr is that The Vaike basically suffers from his class's common issues of large HP, Strength, and Axe access and not a hell of a lot else. The fact that children are involve just exacerbates the problem.

Incidentally, Gaius is very similar to previous B-day boy Vaike in many attributes. Stat cap wise they both tie for worst male stat cap modifier total of 0 with Gaius opting for an extra point of Speed and Magic and two extra points of Resistance for Vaike's two extra Strength and extra point of Luck and Defense (which unfortunately means that Gaius is the one that comes up short between the two since Res is the second biggest dump stat next to Luck and a single point of Speed != 3 points of Strength/Defense). He also ties for the lowest Luck cap modifier sans The Avatar with Stahl, Kellam, and Henry. Class wise, Gaius and Vaike share both the Thief and Fighter class trees with said classes being their default classes respectfully. However, whereas Vaike got Barbarian to complement his Axe fighting skills and Crit rate, Gaius got Myrmidon to complement his Sword fighting skills and Avoid rate (in this case Gaius comes out ahead since Astra is far more effective than Wrath is in this game, plus Vantage is a far better skill than Despoil (although Despoil is still useful in its own right), and Avoid+10 and Gamble work out to provide the same level of advantage).

That being said, there's exactly one definite advantage Gaius holds over Vaike, and that's being able to convert his Fighter class tree into the coveted Pegasus Knight class tree for any girl he sires unlike Vaike who, at best, converts Fighter into the Mercenary class tree or, at worst, the Knight class tree (since he convert Barbarian into the other one). For potential mates, Tharja is his best pairing hands down since it is impossible for Noire to inherit the full 9 classes that a father (not named The Avatar) can provide and she will definitely appreciate the added access to the Peg Knight class tree. After that, its Nowi (Nah desires to get on the Galeforce as well, plus her mother's stat cap modifiers will go a long way to offset Gaius' crappy modifiers) and then a three way tie between Sumia, Miriel, and Maribelle (Gaius is one of Sumia's five options albeit the worst of them since Cynthia already gets Peg Knight from her mother and his stat cap modifiers don't help her at all; Laurent could benefit from the added physical class access even though Gaius is not a great choice for getting there; and the same could be said for Brady). Kjelle isn't really interested because she would rather get it from Donnel and the rest either get it from their mothers (i.e. Severa, potentially Lucina), or their father (i.e. FeMorgan)

Basically, given the lack of stealing in this game, Gaius' best contributions early on is his dodginess and the fact that he's a walking set of lockpicks, but the flood of sword using classes and Gaius' lack of a positive stat cap modifier total means that he loses his niche later on to better characters, thus leaving his one remaining advantage, his ability to pass on the Pegasus Knight class to one of the two daughters that want it from him despite his terrible modifiers.

Anyways, Say'ri is the closest this game comes to the female Myrmidon archetype that has been in every game since FE4 (technically speaking, since the Myrmidon class didn't actually exist until FE6). Unfortunately, she doesn't quite make it given her prepromote status and the fact that, like the other non-breeding characters, she too is plagued by the lack of supports/potential children (incidentally, Kjelle was originally slated to being the actual invoker of the archetype before reclassing into the Knight class). Still, she actually has decent stat cap modifiers (+1s in Strength, Skill, Speed, and Resistance for only a minor -1 hit to Magic and Luck) even if her total stat cap modifier is only +2 (which is average for gen 1 characters). She also has an interesting set of classes with the Myrmidon and both airborne class trees which means both Sword and Lancefaire, Sword and Lancebreaker, Quick Burn, Astra, Vantage, Deliverer which pairs well with being on the Galeforce (additionally, because she has access to both airborne class trees, she's probably one of the only 1st gen characters interested in getting the otherwise useless Iote's Shield DLC skill). But again, these aren't nearly as good as they could've been if she could've had a child other than Morgan who gets these things and more from literally anywhere. Gameplay-wise her biggest contribution is to the plot during the Valmese Vacation sub-arc since your team should be close to matching her abilities by the time you get her (if you go straight there with minimal grinding) but with the promise of children (outside of Chrom, Lucina, and her mother (provided she isn't just some random village girl) who is required, straight up outclasses her upon her introduction, or already had her child (or is a random village girl)), but at least she's one of three non breeders gotten via the plot based missions so there's no reason not to get her right away (although she'll only have one potential support partner as the other two are optional and the Morgan of her loins respectfully).

Basically, she would have a lot of potential if she could just find somebody to love (outside of the Avatar as everybody wants into his/her pants(u)), but because she doesn't there's not much point in using her (still probably more useful than most of the postgame characters given her extra support with Tiki, although a few have better gimmicks than her).

Somehow, I managed to miss Say'ri's B-day even after posting about it. -_-;

Anyways, keep a close eye on your wallet as today's Severa's B-day.

Severa is the series second female to start as a Mercenary since Malice from the BSFE chapters (if you don't count FE5's Machua since she needs to promote into the class, also New Mystery retconned Malice Maris into a Myrmidon so she doesn't count either). Her only in-game consideration is that her recruitment chapter may necessitate a Rescue Staff use or two depending on the difficulty level and your units' mobility/efficiency.

Personality aside, Severa is probably the hardest child character in the game to screw over outside of Morgan given her mother's spectacular inheritance (i.e. the Mercenary, Pegasus Knight, and Dark Mage class trees). If The Avatar/Morgan didn't exist, this alone would be the best standard class combination in the game. Skillswise you have Armsthrift, Galeforce, Tomebreaker, Sol, Bowbreaker (for the flying Peg classes), Axebreaker (which goes great with...), Vengeance, Patience, Anathema, Slow Burn (I guess), and Lancefaire (which is only useful on her Pegasus Knight classes at base; and Bride if you want to count that) which is a solid set but the real reason why these classes are awesome is that Hero and Sorcerer are top tier classes for physical and magical characters statwise respectfully, losing out to only Paladin in terms of meeting/exceeding stat cap averages for a base class (and Paladin only wins because its mounted). In fact, only Dark Flier and Bow Knight are really not that great stat cap-wise for her.

That said, Severa's biggest issue is getting enough Magic together to use her Sorcerer class since her mother is one of the few mothers that isn't magically biased growths/cap modifier-wise (she might be where you'll end up funneling your Spirit Dust towards). Speaking of stat cap modifiers, Cordelia's modifiers primarily boost Skill and Speed with a small boost to Strength for a hit to Magic, Luck, and Resistance for an overall average +2 stat cap modifier total. As a child character, this means that Severa will have large boosts to Skill and Speed, a solid boost to Strength, and a minor boost to Defense before her father's modifiers are applied.

And on that note, the only potential father that can give Severa all nine possible classes as inheritance is Kellam, who is actually one of the better choices for her (even if he only gives her a +1 total modifier) since the Cleric, Knight, and Thief class trees gives Severa a ton of alternate roles and he gives her a large +3 Defense boost and minor +1s for Strength and Skill for hard hits to Speed and Luck. Cleric provides Sage for Tomefaire to make her Sorcerer class even better and War Cleric's Miracle and Renewal for even more health regeneration/survivability options beyond Sol/Nosferatu/Aversa's Darkness. Add in General's Pavise or Great Knight's Dual Guard+ and she'll turn into a brick shithouse (with Tomebreaker adding in some extra Magic Defense). Alternatively, Trickster's Lucky Seven will greatly compliment her other +Avoid options and Move +1 isn't a bad skill either if she wants to default back to Hero, plus both it and the Cleric class trees will give Severa more time to build her Magic stat up if you don't feel like roiding her up. Also Great Knight's Luna is there for some added offense rather than relying on Vengeance's lack of a boost due to Severa pretty much never having an HP deficit around long enough to make use of it.

Her other top choices for father would be Ricken (great Magic stat cap modifier to aid Severa's Magic and access to Mage, Cavalier, and Archer classes for Tomefaire, Magic +2, Aegis, Luna, Dual Guard+, Skill +2, and Hit +20 for Bow Knight and Dark Knight overlap, hits to Strength and Defense modifiers, and a measly +1 modifier total), Virion (solid +2s to Skill and Speed cap modifiers and access to Mage, Wyvern Rider, and Archer classes for Tomefaire, Magic +2, Quick Burn, Deliverer, Swordbreaker, Lancebreaker, Strength +2, Skill +2, and Hit +20 for a massive hit to the Defense modifier and a minor one to Luck and Bow Knight overlap), and Stahl (fantastic physical stat cap modifiers with a +3 total and access to Myrmidon, Cavalier, and Archer classes for Swordfaire, Astra, Vantage, Aegis, Luna, Dual Guard+, Avoid +10, Skill +2, and Hit +20 for Bow Knight overlap). Her worst father option is either Donnel or The Avatar as Donnel only offers Severa three classes (all within the Troubadour class tree) which aren't bad in of themselves but other kids want him far more and the same goes for The Avatar.

The tl;dr for Severa is that she is practically guaranteed everything she needs to rock right out of the gate. Her only drawback is that she's not male and thus cannot access the Dread Fighter class for the incredible Aggressor skill. At least she can work as a Rallybot if all else fails with Rallies Speed, Movement, Love, Skill, and if sired by Kellam; Magic, Defense, and Luck.